Publishers’ outcry at EU plans ignores potential for new partnerships, say Johan Rooryck and colleagues

On 23 May, the Council of the EU adopted a groundbreaking set of conclusions advocating high-quality, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing. The move drew widespread support from Europe’s academic community, including in a joint response from nine organizations representing funders, researchers and universities.

Some native open-access commercial publishers also welcomed the conclusions. The traditional academic publishing industry, however, was less enthusiastic. Caroline Sutton, chief executive of the trade association STM, was quoted as saying that the conclusions “support a move that would abolish an